While the average time spent in prison for all of the exonerees in the National Registry of Exonerations is just over nine years, there have been some prisoners who spent an extraordinary amount of time imprisoned for crimes they did not commit. The Registry calculates prison time from the date of conviction. Therefore, our calculations exclude time spent incarcerated prior to conviction. The following is a list of the exonerees who spent at least 25 years in prison prior to exoneration.
Name Time Incarcerated Sentence Incarcerated State
Clifford Jones 29 years, 2 months, 0 days Term of Years - New York
George Perrot 29 years, 1 months, 29 days Life - Massachusetts
Christopher Williams 29 years, 0 months, 18 days Life without parole - Pennsylvania
Timothy Johnson 28 years, 11 months, 25 days Life - Georgia
Gerry Thomas 28 years, 11 months, 19 days Term of Years - Michigan
Randolph Arledge 28 years, 10 months, 17 days Life - Texas
Hayes Williams 28 years, 10 months, 15 days Life - Louisiana
Mark Denny 28 years, 10 months, 8 days Term of Years - New York
Carlos Jaile 28 years, 9 months, 5 days Life - Texas
Claude Garrett 28 years, 8 months, 19 days Life without parole - Tennessee
Christopher Ellis 28 years, 8 months, 5 days Term of Years - New York
Michael McAlister 28 years, 7 months, 17 days Term of Years - Virginia
Raymond Towler 28 years, 7 months, 15 days Life - Ohio
Leroy Harris 28 years, 7 months, 10 days Term of Years - Connecticut
Herman Williams 28 years, 6 months, 17 days Life without parole - Illinois
Anthony Hinton 28 years, 6 months, 14 days Death - Alabama
Joseph Salvati 28 years, 6 months, 6 days Life - Massachusetts
Robert Nelson 28 years, 6 months, 0 days Term of Years - Missouri
Adolfo Rosario 28 years, 5 months, 4 days Term of Years - Illinois
Ralph Armstrong 28 years, 4 months, 26 days Life - Wisconsin
Patrick Brown 28 years, 4 months, 22 days Life without parole - Louisiana
Daniel Gwynn 28 years, 3 months, 26 days Death - Pennsylvania
Corey Atchison 28 years, 1 months, 2 days Life - Oklahoma
Humberto Duran 28 years, 1 months, 1 days Life - California
Christopher Abernathy 28 years, 0 months, 27 days Life without parole - Illinois
James Marshall 28 years, 0 months, 23 days Term of Years - Illinois
Frank Gable 28 years, 0 months, 1 days Life without parole - Oregon
David McCallum 27 years, 11 months, 19 days Term of Years - New York
James Kelly 27 years, 10 months, 28 days Life without parole - Pennsylvania
Johnny Flores 27 years, 10 months, 28 days Term of Years - Illinois
Jerry Herrington 27 years, 10 months, 26 days Term of Years - Illinois
Steven Chaney 27 years, 9 months, 29 days Life - Texas
Steven Crawford 27 years, 9 months, 28 days Life - Pennsylvania
Robert Johnson 27 years, 9 months, 10 days Term of Years - Illinois
Gerardo Cabanillas 27 years, 9 months, 0 days Term of Years - California
Clarence Moses-EL 27 years, 8 months, 13 days Term of Years - Colorado
Adam Carmon 27 years, 8 months, 4 days Term of Years - Connecticut
Demond Weston 27 years, 7 months, 26 days Term of Years - Illinois
Larry Moses 27 years, 7 months, 12 days Life without parole - Louisiana
Lamar Johnson 27 years, 7 months, 3 days Life without parole - Missouri
James Shortt 27 years, 7 months, 2 days Life without parole - California
Arthur Brown 27 years, 6 months, 22 days Life without parole - Illinois
Lawrence William Lee 27 years, 6 months, 13 days Death - Georgia
James Gibson 27 years, 6 months, 9 days Life without parole - Illinois
John Jerome White 27 years, 6 months, 7 days Life - Georgia
Bernard Young 27 years, 5 months, 25 days Term of Years - Michigan
Gerard Domond 27 years, 5 months, 9 days Term of Years - New York
James Curtis Williams 27 years, 5 months, 2 days Life - Texas
Louis Greco 27 years, 4 months, 29 days Death - Massachusetts
Richard Beranek 27 years, 4 months, 12 days Life - Wisconsin
TOTAL: 306